LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas father accused of killing his own son because of his sexual orientation has been sentenced to life in prison with the chance of parole after 28 years on Wednesday morning.
According to a 2017 report, prosecutors say Wendell Melton fatally shot his 14-year-old son Giovanni after going to his son's Henderson apartment to confront him. Melton claims this shooting was an accident and that he was “afraid of the people his son hung out with.”
Melton served just five months in jail following his arrest in 2017 before posting bail and awaiting his trial on house arrest. In May, a jury found Wendell Melton guilty of one count of murder with a deadly weapon and two counts of child abuse.
During court proceedings, Melton's defense attorney claimed that he brought to the gun to the apartment because he was "afraid of his son," due to an alleged drug problem. The defense also claimed that the gun went off during a struggle between Melton and his son.
Melton also claimed that he had "no animosity" toward his son being gay.
The boy’s mother, Veronica Melton says the shooting was an intentional murder because Melton “did not want a gay son.” She also addressed the court on Wednesday after prosecutors called her to the stand. She said that the death of her son has "destroyed" her family for the past 5 years, and the trauma of her son's death has left her with a diagnosis of complicated grief.
She told the court, "The murderer wasn't a bank robber or a thug — it was his biological father."
